Hi Gabbi,
Welcome to your personalized Grit Lab Report!
We will go week by week, reviewing everything you have told us through Poll Everywhere.
We hope this will help you reflect on what you have learned and experienced during Grit Lab.
Important note!
Sometimes, you may not have been able to respond to all polls.
If the data for one of the polls is missing, the automatic report will display NA, or ““.
Okay, let’s get started!
The first half of Grit Lab delves deep intp the passion facet of Grit.
We like to call it Choose Easy, because we think gritty people pursue what they enjoy.
Putting it graphically, gritty people tend to pursue the intersection of these four circles.
The first time we met, you told us where you were on the grit rubric.
Regarding passion you picked Stage 4: I have an interest I’m actively pursuing, voluntarily devoting more than 3 hours of “free time” each week .
Regarding perseverance you picked .
As you know, grit grows, so don’t worry if you are not yet where you’d like to be in your grit journey.
Hopefully, this class will help you become grittier each day.
In week 2, we looked at your interests.
Interest is an emotion, and it is the opposite of boredom.
Your interests are the activities or subjects that spontaneously grab your attention.
Trying things out and seeing how you feel is the best way to refine your interests.
In week 3, we studied values, your beliefs about what is important.
You said your top three values were self-direction, benevolence, and stimulation.
You wrote a “This I Believe” essay, and here’s where you located it on Schwartz’s value taxonomy.
When we talked about strengths in week 4, you said your personality strength was agreeableness.
You said your top three talents were verbal, social, and artistic / spatial.
We then talked about goal hierarchies.
You said you had a general intuition (but nothing specific yet) about your top-level goal.
We discussed self-concordance, or how much a goal aligns to your deeply held values and beliefs.
A goal you said you will be pursuing for the next six months is to write a novel .
Here is how self-concordant that goal was:
Don’t worry if your self-concordance for that particular goal is low.
It might mean that you need to reframe that goal in a way that makes it more relevant to your deep self, or change it!
Remember that self-concordance is goal specific, so other goals might be more self-concordant.
We then transitioned to the second part of Grit Lab:
Work Smart
In week 6, we looked at goal setting and planning.
You WOOPed!
For your Wish, what you wanted to accomplish, you said finish finance homework .
For your Outcome, what would happen if your wish came true, you said Feel prepared for my .
For you Obstacle, what it is within you that stands in your way, you said My fear of finance .
For your Plan, you created this when-then plan to achieve your goal: When I get home, I will do 10 problems .
Whether you changed your WOOP or stuck to that one, here’s where it landed between being a total fail, and going exactly according to plan.
And here’s how much you learned
These goals are hard, and despite our best efforts, our plans can fail.
The important thing is that you learn something along the way!
In week 7, we talked about deliberate practice.
You shared you’ve done daily practice in reading .
We learned that deliberate practice requires a challenging, hyperspecific goal, maximum concentration, instant feedback, and is often done alone.
In week 8, we discussed feedback.
Even though feedback can be hard to take, it is often the key to improve. So if you want to improve, seek it actively!
You said you felt embarrassed when receiving critical feedback, and embarrassed when receiving positive feedback.
We then turned to learning about stress.
In week 9, you reported feeling a little of stress in your life right now, the primary source of it being academics .
We also talked about adversity and failure.
Although related, adversity and failure are different:
Adversity happens to us, whereas failure is something for which we are generally more responsible.
However, how we interpret stress and failure matters…
Interestingly, research has found that people who believe that stress can facilitate learning and growth experience enhanced performance, well-being, and health.
And failure—not achieving a particular goal—can be interpreted as “I’m learning!” and lead you to look for the lesson in that experience.
We closed the Work Smart section of the class by talking about habits.
Throughout the semester, you practice habit building using your Build-A-Habit Guide book.
You describe the habit you chose as .
Whether you were successful in habit building or not, this is how much you learned.
Finally, what good is grit if we do not dream for others?
So, we transitioned to Paying it Forward.
In week 10, we looked at mentors: role models that take an active role in your growth.
Hopefully, your mentor was authoritative, being both supportive and demanding.
Here’s how you described them:
You also wrote a gratitude letter to Other .
In one word, you said it made you feel warm .
One way of paying it forward is having a prosocial, beyond-the-self purpose. Here’s how you responded to items assessing that.
… and so quickly we arrived at the end of the semester.
Here’s how your mood varied over these weeks.
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Do you notice any patterns? Is there anything that correlates with your mood?
Here you can scroll through all the quotes you wrote to summarize each class.
| |
| Grit is about passion just as much as it is about commitment |
| Sampling is an important part of developing your interests and becoming successful |
| Personality can change over time, through age and therapy |
| A goal is a desired future state and Harmony is aerodynamic |
| its not enough to have a goal, you need to set intentions and plans to actionably achieve it |
| its not talent but deliberate practice that's important |
| FEED FORWARD |
| ITS YOUR MINDSET THAT MATTERS |
| change the situation, don't rely on your willpower |
| Find many mentors. They are key to your development |
| There's more to life than just living for yourself |
In the final class, we looked back to everything we’ve learned together and to how our passion and perseverance evolved during this class.
Here are the comments from your Grit Lab Teammates:
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| Carolyn Tsiang |
| Gabbi is a ray of sunshine in our team, constantly bringing an infectious energy that uplifts everyone around her. I am particularly grateful for the moments we share walking together, enjoying the beautiful weather, and engaging in deep, meaningful conversations. Her laughter and positive outlook have a way of making any challenge seem surmountable, and for that, I am truly thankful. Gabbi's presence is a constant reminder of the beauty in life and the joy in genuine human connections.
Gabbi's discovery project in creative writing has been a great source of inspiration for our team. Her passion for the craft has rekindled a love for reading for pleasure within us, showcasing the joy that comes from immersing oneself in literature. Observing her delve deeply into creative writing, engaging in curiosity conversations, and learning the intricate details of this field have been incredibly motivating. Gabbi approaches her project with remarkable grit and determination, fearlessly exploring every avenue to nurture her passion. Throughout this semester, Gabbi’s warmth, thoughtfulness, and genuine spirit have truly made a difference. I am so proud of her! |
| Olivia Morganti |
| Gabbi is an enviable team member. She is a great listener and has a way of making everyone feel heard and seen. She can gently guide a conversation while allowing everybody involved to say their peace. Gabbi tries to remember what you have told her in the past and asks about it later. This again shows how people-centered she is and the effort she puts into those around her.
Gabbi’s discovery project displaced her passion. Though it deviated from her planned career path, it showed a different side of her. Gabbi is interested in writing and shows her creativity and interest in people. I do not doubt that Gabbi will make a great author, and I look forward to reading a book by her one day.
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| Paulina Ruiz |
| The best part of getting to know Gabby this semester was to see her constant energetic curiosity. She questioned everything and she wasn’t shy about asking any of us what we thought if she believed we had something to say, which was extremely valuable. This made our conversations so much richer, it helped us get to know each other better, and personally it helped me reflect more deeply on my answers. Gabby also always brought the best energy to the team. No matter the weather, the time of the semester, how she was feeling that day, she was always excited to share and excited to ask.
It was so interesting to hear about Gabby’s discovery project on creative writing because I was able to learn about the ‘other side’ of reading, which is something I am deeply passionate about. I really liked how Gabby asked and thought through all the tough questions behind what it means to be a writer. How many tries it takes to get your first novel, what the financial realities are, etc. Even though she conducted her project through a practical view, her presentation conveyed the excitement of her passion for writing. I can’t wait to read her first novel. |
We hope you have emerged from Grit Lab a little grittier than you started.
Do you want to see how your grit rubric changed?
Drumroll please…
Don’t worry if the rubric doesn’t yet reflect growth. It is only a coarse measure that cannot replace your own self-reflection.
In any case, grit is not built in a day…
…remember that progress is never smooth…
…so stay passionate and persevering in the lifelong quest of choosing easy, working smart, and paying it forward.
With grit and gratitude,
Angela and the Grit Lab team.